Its taken me some time to write this update on my adventure with Endometrial Cancer; the surgery went well, I went home on the fourth day, just as scheduled. After I got home, things got a bit crazy.
I came home on December 19(Monday night). I couldn't sleep in the bed because I couldn't get out of bed, so I slept on the recliner, but even that was very difficult for me to get up and out. My mother has one of those chairs that lift you--I thought that might work.
I called my insurance company and they told me what they needed from the doctor to approve me to rent one(I only wanted one for 2 weeks, just until I could move easily by myself).I first call the oncologist's office. I explain that I'm in a great deal of pain, having problems getting out of the chair and can't get in bed. I'm also bleeding more and told them about my idea about a lift chair for a couple of weeks. "You're an HMO patient, we don't know how to prepare that." I say I've already called the insurance, all the doctor has to do is fax a prescription/note to the insurance company. Ms. "I work here and knowitall" tells me that with real insurance, all they usually do is make a phone call. What this fool doesn't know(and I tell her) is that I used to work with insurance and insurance companies aren't going to approve anything without written documentation! She's flustered, but won't take my question--OK, have the doctor call me.
I then call my gynocologist with same request and get told by the doctor on call that I just need the excercise! I again ask that my doctor to call me.
Two days later(Thursday), I'm still waiting, but now I have a temperature. I call the surgeon's office, stating that I'm in more pain and I have a temperature of just under 100(that being the magic number) and that this started about 24 hours before. They said don't worry about it unless it goes over 100. Only problem with this formula is that it works if you normal temp is close to the 98.6....my normal temp is closer to 97.3!
Saturday evening, I took a shower. I'd been feeling weak that day and temp hit 100, but only for an hour. I got out of the shower and started shivering violently. My temp dropped to 96.4! My husband calls the doctor and we go to ER.
We were waiting about 20 minutes at the ER before we got a room(there had been a bad accident right before I got in). The nurse takes my temp and I'm now at 104! I'm probably not as surprised as the staff; I usually spike when I get a bad fever/flu/infection, but that doesn't mean I'm not worried.
I'm diagnosed with an infection at the incision and they have to take out some of the staples early to let the infection drain. I'm also put on IV antibiotics for the next 4 days. I was placed on the 5th floor(medical/surgical) instead of the 3rd(neo-natal, obstetrics/gynocology). It was like going from a 5 star hotel to Motel 6 in care--and there was no light waiting for me!
I'm in the hospital from Saturday, December 22 until Tuesday, December 26. Although my fever goes down, I still have a fever when I go home. I've also now added a complication with my blood pressure which has also "spiked" to around 150/90. Is that really high? No, but for me it is. During this stay, I had to wait for 7 hours one time to get pain meds(the next shift came on and I finally had a nurse that read the DIRECTIONS!)
